"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for ChristEllis, William T. (William Thomas)
Religion
"Billy" Sunday, the Man and His Message: With his own words which have won thousands for Christ
Ellis, William T. (William Thomas)
Baseball players -- United States -- Biography; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Sunday, Billy, 1862-1935
Under the leadership of the University Christian Association,
the church leaders of Philadelphia of all denominations have been
canvassing their own students in the University and have found most
hearty response to everything that has to do with good living. The
effect is really that of a religious crusade, and the result is of
that permanent sort which expresses itself in righteousness of life.
At the close of the night meeting on Monday, about 1,000 students
arose to their feet in answer to Mr. Sunday's invitation to live the
Christian life in earnest, or to join for the first time the Christian
way of life. Those who have called upon the students who took this
stand have found that it was genuine, and not in any sense due to a
mere emotional movement. Mr. Sunday's appeal seems to be almost wholly
to the will and conscience, but it is entirely based upon the movement
of the Holy Spirit of God.
No one who has ever addressed the students of the University of
Pennsylvania on vital religion has ever approached the success which
was attained by Mr. Sunday in reaching the students, and without doubt
this visit is only the opening up of a marvelous opportunity for Mr.
Sunday to reach the students of the entire country, especially those
of our great cosmopolitan universities.
The editor of _Old Penn_ asked opinions from members of the faculty and
undergraduate body. Dean Edward C. Kirk, M.D., D.D.S., of the Dental
Department, said in his appraisal of the Sunday visit:
If, as according to some of the critics, the impression that he has
made is but temporary and the enthusiasm which he has created is only
a momentary impulse, even so, the success of his accomplishment lies
in the fact that he has produced results where others have failed to
make a beginning. The University ought to have the uplifting force not
only of a Billy Sunday, but a Billy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and
every other day in the week.
Of the students who testified in print, one, a prominent senior, wrote:
Mr. Sunday awoke in me a realization of my evil practices and sins
so forcefully that I am going to make a determined effort to give
them up and to make amends for the past. From my many conversations
with fellow-students I find that this is what Mr. Sunday did. If he
did not directly cause the student to come forward and take a stand,
every student at least was aroused to think about this all-important
question in a light that he had not seriously considered it in before.
The undergraduate body, as a whole, is glad that Mr. Sunday came to
Philadelphia.
A Christian worker from the Law School gave his opinion as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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